Nuclear Tests

What is it?

Nuclear tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Additionally, nuclear testing has often been used as an indicator of scientific and military strength, and many tests have been overtly political in their intention.
The Earth exploded into the nuclear age on 16 July 1945.On that day, the US tested a completely new type of weapon in the New Mexico desert. Crafted from a tennis-ball-sized plutonium sphere, the Trinity bomb produced an explosion equivalent to 20,000 tonnes of TNT.

Sixty years on, tens of thousands of tonnes of plutonium and enriched uranium have been produced. The global nuclear arsenal stands at about 27,000 bombs. Nine countries very probably possess nuclear weapons, while 40 others have access to the materials and technology to make them.

But nuclear technology has also been used for peaceful means. The first nuclear reactor to provide electricity to a national grid opened in England in 1956. Now, 442 reactors in 32 nations generate 16% of the world’s electricity.
Nuclear power has been championed as a source of cheap energy. But this was undermined at the end of the 20th century by high-profile reactor accidents, the problems of radioactive waste disposal, competition from more-efficient electricity sources and unavoidable links to nuclear weapons proliferation. Nonetheless, growing evidence for global warming had led some to argue that nuclear power is the only way to generate power without emitting greenhouse gases.